<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>slow fall / otherworldly leap by SolaSola</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28463481">slow fall / otherworldly leap</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/SolaSola/pseuds/SolaSola'>SolaSola</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dimension 20 (Web Series)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>5+1 Things, Angels, Campaign 03 Season 01: The Unsleeping City, Central Park, Dimension 20 December Gift Exchange 2020, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Staten Island, Takes place entirely during TUC1 and between seasons</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-11 00:09:35</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,384</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28463481</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/SolaSola/pseuds/SolaSola</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>She keeps an arm around Dale and she turns her face into the wind too, trying to feel every little drop of harbor as it flies up to meet them. And it’s Sofia and at heart she’s loud so she yells into the wind, “We’re flying!” Dale laughs, happy and bright and ocean-sprayed, and a couple of other passengers look at them weirdly and Sofia doesn’t care. It’s been a good night, and when they get home Sofia has <i>plans.</i> They’re on the ferry, and they’re flying home. </p><p>[sofia lee is dating two people who both have wings, and she loves it.</p><p>or: 5 times sofia’s partners helped her fly + 1 time she flew on her own]</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Sofia Bicicleta/Dale Lee, Sofia Bicicleta/Em | Angel of the Waters, Sofia Bicicleta/Em | Angel of the Waters/Dale Lee</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>D20 Gift Exchange 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>slow fall / otherworldly leap</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/nichristi/gifts">nichristi</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Happy D20 December Exchange (and happy New Years' Eve!), NiChristi! You asked for Sofia/Em/Dale, and I hope you enjoy this little fluffy 5+1. This ship is so galaxy brained, and Sofia absolutely deserves to get loved on by both her eight foot tall bronze angel girlfriend and her heaven-jailbreaking former Chosen One angel husband (Sofia has two hands, and you're about to catch both of them if you don't let her love big and loud)!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>1. </p><p>
  <span>It’s just the ferry, Sofia wants to say. It’s free, and it’s got a bar, but it’s not that special. But Dale just hangs onto her hand and Sofia hangs onto her bag and trots along after him as they weave their way through the crowd of folks boarding. Sofia prides herself on being able to elbow people aside with the best of them, but Dale always takes the lead in crowds like this: it’s like he always finds the best openings for them to slip through, and Sofia feels like a princess with crowds magically parting in front of them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s not even close to Dale’s first time on the ferry, but it’s been such a good night out, dinner and drinks in Manhattan, and Dale’s still a little flushed and excited as he leads them right to the front. Staten Island glows in front of them and Sofia still thrills a little because </span>
  <em>
    <span>we’re going home, it’s me and Dale and for both of us that’s home</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s just the ferry, barely going fifteen miles an hour, but as it picks up speed Dale turns to Sofia and puts his arm around her waist and she leans into his side, solid and warm. He buries his nose in her hair, for once not too shy to do this in public, and she loves seeing this side of him, a little goofy and just happy. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sofia feels the deck rattle underneath them as the ferry speeds up and they’re at the very front, seawater spraying up and the wind blowing it into their faces. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sof, it’s like flying!” Dale tells her like it’s some kind of magical secret, and Sofia watches him turn his face into the wind and close his eyes as the ferry bumps along over meagre waves. And it’s just the ferry, not even that fast and with the wind threatening to undo the hard work she did making her hair nice for their date, but they’re going home and Sofia realizes she doesn’t care. She keeps an arm around Dale and she turns her face into the wind too, trying to feel every little drop of harbor as it flies up to meet them. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>And it’s Sofia and at heart she’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>loud</span>
  </em>
  <span> so she yells into the wind, “We’re flying!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dale laughs, happy and bright and ocean-sprayed, and a couple of other passengers look at them weirdly and Sofia doesn’t care. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s been a good night, and when they get home Sofia has </span>
  <em>
    <span>plans</span>
  </em>
  <span>. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>They’re on the ferry, and they’re flying home. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>2.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s a New York evening, completely starless in the glow of the city’s lights, and Sofia’s walking through Central Park with a picnic basket on her arm. She stops by the Bethesda Fountain, the tap of her heels on pavement slowing as she approaches the water. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sofia flips a coin into the fountain with a plink and a little splash. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>In front of her there’s a rush of wind through wings and the shifting of heavy metal as the Angel of the Waters comes to life.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wow,” Em drawls, “I gotta say, I’m feeling like a pretty cheap date.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sofia just grins wide and watches her as Em steps gracefully down and glides on huge bronze wings right up to where Sofia’s standing. She bounces the picnic basket on her arm and says, “Make it up to you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Em puts a hand to her heart in pleased surprise. Sofia doesn’t think bronze can blush, but she thinks this might be the equivalent all the same. She’ll count it as a victory. “Well, how could I say no to such a charming request?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sofia just holds out her other arm for Em so they can start walking, but there are suddenly arms around her, metal warming from her own body heat. Em ducks her head right down next to Sofia’s ear and murmurs, “This okay, hon?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sofia thrills and nods, barely breathing a “yes” before Em carries her right up into the air, arms wrapped around her stomach as they fly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Metal should be cold, maybe, but Em is warm under her touch and she holds Sofia tight as they fly, heavy wingbeats up into the air and then slowly gliding. Central Park spills out below them and it’s beautiful, just barely getting dark. They’re </span>
  <em>
    <span>flying</span>
  </em>
  <span> and for all Sofia thinks she’s been pretty on top of the whole “magic is real” thing so far, this still feels, well, magical. She can’t help but hold her breath a little as Em puts her lips right by Sofia’s ear again and says, “I don’t get to fly around much, so I gotta say thank you for giving me an excuse.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sofia turns around as much as she can in Em’s arms and tells her, “Well, I don’t get to fly at all except with you, so the pleasure’s all mine.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She’s grinning wide and just </span>
  <em>
    <span>whoops</span>
  </em>
  <span> with glee as Em banks and takes them down, and she can feel Em laughing holding her, vibrations all through the metal and through Sofia too. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Em lands them on the roof of Belvedere Castle’s pavilion—“a little cliche, maybe, but what can I say, it’s beautiful,” Em shrugs—and Sofia can’t even imagine what the Umbral Arcana is making people see as a huge bronze angel and a Staten Island woman spread out a red-checkered picnic blanket. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sofia brought dinner and picked up some little cannolis from Spaghettis, and Em waves her hand over a bottle of water she’s dipped up out of her fountain and turns it into something sweet and fizzy and smooth going down. Sofia pours them both glasses and says, “Yeah, it really is beautiful,” as the two of them clink a little toast. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Em doesn’t really need to eat, Sofia thinks, but she seems to enjoy it and it’s nice to share some time together in these little picnic dates. She’s not sure how far Em can go from Central Park, but they keep finding new spots and Sofia thinks she’d be happy if they never went farther than this. She knits a hand through Em’s fingers and leans into her side, and Em brings one big wing around like a hug around her shoulders.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Turtle Pond isn’t really anything compared to the whole lake that Em’s fountain overlooks, but Em seems plenty happy dangling her feet over the edge of the roof and looking out at the water as it shimmers. And Sofia’s spent time leaping across far higher skyscrapers, but being up on the terrace roof with one of Em’s bronze wings curled around her back to block out the wind, it feels like she’s on top of the world.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>3.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The first few times Dale breaks out of heaven, Sofia just wants to touch. He’s corporeal and </span>
  <em>
    <span>here</span>
  </em>
  <span> and she doesn’t want to let go, won’t let go, can’t let go in case he disappears without her hands on him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The first few times Dale breaks out of heaven, he doesn’t tell her their time is limited—neither of them know, yet, how many times he’ll be able to get out or what rules of heaven you can break if you have a Questing Blade. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He’s still her Dale, with his pocket protector and a little awkward wave as he’d materialized from motes of light in the backyard. And he’s as solid as ever, just bringing his arms up to catch her when Sofia drops her bag with a clatter and just runs at him, jumping into his arms like it’s years ago and it’s not the Chosen One of the Order slamming her weight into his chest. It’s a relief when she knocks the breath out of him because he’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>real real real</span>
  </em>
  <span> and Sofia had half expected to pass right through, to hit the ground without being caught. Dale takes a step back to just </span>
  <em>
    <span>look</span>
  </em>
  <span> at her and Sofia doesn’t know if she wants to cry or to scream or to kiss him senseless.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She does know that she wants to </span>
  <em>
    <span>touch</span>
  </em>
  <span> and Dale lets her, hands still on her biceps and eyes tracking hers as she takes in. Everything that’s the same and everything that’s not.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>glowing</span>
  </em>
  <span>, and Sofia thinks maybe he’d hurt to look at if she hadn’t already decided to never ever look away. Dale has. He has wings now, huge feathery ones that look like the ones on the angels in the stained glass windows of churches. And oh, all his white feathers are stained with angel blood, and Sofia wants to laugh. He was always so careful about keeping things clean, before. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sofia starts wanting to fine tooth comb the bloodstains out of his wings, and of course she has a comb in her pocket. Sofia Lee is no one if not a woman who knows how to absolutely go to work, and Dale has dried angel blood all over him that he’d just be so much </span>
  <em>
    <span>prettier</span>
  </em>
  <span> without. Sofia finds feathers askew that she can arrange back where they belong, and her fingers dance along his wings, just wanting to make everything right for him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Of all people, Sofia knows Dale deserves—Dale deserves everything to be right for him. Dale deserves everything. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The comb slows in her hands as she realizes Dale hasn’t moved.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is this weird?” Sofia asks, suddenly nervous. She can’t help but keep fussing, finding feathers out of place and tucking them gently back where they belong. You’d think angels would get more perfect wings.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It takes a second for Dale to tear his eyes away from where he’s just been watching her long fingers comb through soft white.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s never weird if it’s coming from you, Sof,” he says, slowly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The worry in the pit of her stomach drops away—why was she nervous? For the life of her she can’t remember—and she moves impossibly closer. Her fingers find soft feathers between his shoulder blades that she can’t stop running her hands through, glossy dark acrylic nails against silky smooth down in a contrast that she thinks would be really pretty if she cared enough to take her eyes away from Dale’s even prettier face to look. She’s ruffling all his feathers again but she doesn’t think he’ll mind if it means she’s going to go back through to arrange them properly for him again. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sofia looks up at Dale’s face, literally radiantly happy, and she drapes her arms over his shoulders and melts into the softest kiss of her life. His hands drop to her waist and he’s lifting her up, huge wings wrapping around them both as her feet leave the ground. Dale—her Dale—spins her around and kisses her within an inch of her life and Sofia doesn’t even notice at first when his feet leave the ground too, huge white wings whipping up a wind around them. Sofia’s in the eye of a hurricane, a whirl of white and feathers and radiance and the night sky above them, but solid in the middle of it all is Dale, her Dale. Sofia is so happy she never wants to land.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>4.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sofia wishes every time she sees Em could be on one of their nice little picnic dates, but sometimes the way they see each other is in a fight instead, and right now she’s fifty feet up a skyscraper and just </span>
  <em>
    <span>running</span>
  </em>
  <span>, fast enough that she doesn’t fall.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She tosses a glance over her shoulder and there’s Em, cupping her hands around her mouth and flying ten feet below her as she hollers, “I gotchu Sofia, you just go ahead and mess this fellow right up!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sofia laughs and yells back, “I’ll get him just for you, hon!” and leaps at the giant steel wasp they’re fighting, arms outstretched as she dives, grabbing hold of it and just swinging hard, all body weight and easy grace and Jackson’s training kicking in. It feels perfect, just the way she imagined it, as she swings the wasp around and gets ready to let go, swinging it off into the sky and away from all the nice people in this skyscraper. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She gets her feet back on the glass of the windows for a second and just runs along sidelong, building up momentum before she jumps and lets go and watches her target sail off into the sky, stunned and far away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And then Sofia’s falling, falling in the way she’s learned is safe now, eyes already on a girder she can grab to swing herself back up onto. It’s all motion and it’s all as easy as breathing, herself and the air and the city all knowing each other perfectly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And then she stops falling because Em swoops by, and with a </span>
  <em>
    <span>thump</span>
  </em>
  <span> Em catches her in her arms. Sofia can take care of herself, and she’s no strange to leaping and falling, but this is nice too.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Did I get him good enough for you?” she smiles as Em beats her huge wings, getting them back up to where the rest of the party is still fighting.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Em winks at her, squeezing Sofia just a little in her arms. “You got him perfect, hon.” And Sofia’s already being carried, okay, and she’s got a few seconds and Em is just so strong and beautiful that she leans up in Em’s arms to kiss her before they get to where they’re going. The bronze warms against her lips and Em smiles into the kiss.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, I think you’ve got me about perfect too, don’t’ya think?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sofia has a really killer one-liner planned, something charming and flirty and very very perfect, and then a shrill wolf-whistle pierces the air.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You guys are so cute I’m gonna fucking barf,” Pete yells, and Sofia just rolls her eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sofia yells back, “Pete Conlan, a lady’s earned one smooch in combat if she’s just defeated a whole ass wasp that was coming for your sorry ass!” and Pete just pretends to retch as he throws his hands out with a cone of cold that withers another three wasps in front of him. Show off. It’s all love. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mind letting me off here, babe?” she says with a wink, and Sofia manages to blow a kiss as she leaps out of Em’s arms right towards the next monster. Em’ll be there to catch her on this one, too. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>5.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They don’t have planned times for visits, really, so when a few motes of light begin swirling around Sofia as she walks through Central Park she just assumes the Umbral Arcana will take care of it. It’s its problem, not hers, if an angel of a man materializes in Central Park. The light brightens and glows and in a flash Dale falls right into step beside her. He tucks the questing blade back into his belt and the light retreats enough for her to see him, properly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, hel-</span>
  <em>
    <span>lo</span>
  </em>
  <span> there,” Sofia beams at him. She slows her walk long enough to put a hand on the side of his face and pull him towards her for a kiss, sweet as pie. “Nice of you to come on date night, maybe I can finally introduce you two properly,” she says when they’ve (finally) broken apart. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’d love to meet Em,” Dale says, earnest as always, and he just sticks his hands in his pockets and follows as she leads them towards Bethesda Fountain. They’ve talked about Sofia dating Em before, and Dale’s been nothing but supportive—”I can’t be down here all the time, Sof, and I just want you to be happy all the time”—but he usually breaks his way out of heaven when she’s on Staten Island. He hasn’t been to Central Park since he died.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sofia leads them down the stairs to Em’s terrace and flips a quarter into the water—she doesn’t actually need to do that to call her, but it’s become a little joke between them. Umbral arcana swirls around them and Em soars down on outstretched wings. Dale takes a nervous step back as she lands with a </span>
  <em>
    <span>boom</span>
  </em>
  <span>, solid bronze on the brick terrace. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, hello to you too,” Sofia grins. “Dale, this is Em. Em, this is my husband, Dale.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Pleased to meet you,” Dale says, bobbing his head a little, and Sofia stretches out a hand to twine their fingers together. He squeezes back a little more tightly than he probably would have. He’s cute when he’s nervous, and it makes Sofia remember that underneath the angel wings and the glowing halo and the Questing Blade and the angelic bloodstains is still the accountant she fell in love with when he wandered into a women’s salon on Staten Island.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>This dork. Sofia loves him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sofia grins at Em and reaches out her other hand, which Em </span>
  <em>
    <span>kisses</span>
  </em>
  <span> because she’s just elegant like that. Sofia resists the urge to swoon and stage whispers, “Between you and me? I think he’s a little bit nervous.” The half-indignant squeeze of her hand from Dale’s side makes it worth it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Em smiles down at Dale—eight feet of bronze is no joke—and just says, “Well, I’m charmed.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sofia’s told me a lot about you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well! All good things, I hope. Now, I did have a date night spot planned, but it is a bit of distance as the crow flies. Mind giving me a hand?” Em asks, easy as anything. And Dale grins—social encounters are not his forte, but Sofia knows now that feats of strength certainly are—and both of them hang onto Sofia’s hands as they take off into the sky, two angels and Sofia between them. It’s going to be a good night. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>+1.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sofia’s running, running, running, wind in her hair and the ground far below her as she dashes up the cables of the Verrazzano Bridge. It’s nighttime and below her are red and white lights as cars speed by, but it’s nothing compared to the glint of the moon (and the stars that are probably there, although never in a million years could she pretend to see them from New York City) and also the flashes of red Louboutin soles as Sofia runs. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She’s leaping, balancing effortlessly on thick spiral steel cable, and tonight she’s not hunting monsters or keeping watch. It’s just for her, just for the thrill of wind picking curls out of her ponytail and La Gran Gata keeping two blue and green eyes trained on the peregrine falcon nests up ahead on the towers—“Mija, they are so fierce, so majestic, and yet still just birds with feathers I would so dearly love to pluck—” “Gran Gata, we are not hunting falcons tonight!”—and of course, a bit of an audience.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sofia spares a glance down and there are both Dale and Em, gliding along on outstretched wings below her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They’re ready to catch her if she falls. They won’t need to. Sofia runs up and they’re slower than her, beating their wings against the breeze off the Narrows to catch up. By the time Em lands her metal bulk on the bridge’s tower and Dale flutters his wings as he comes in for a landing, Sofia’s sitting pretty, kicking her legs off the side of the bridge and La Gran Gata curled around her shoulders.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The wind is ripping through her hair and Sofia just turns her face into it, looking not back at Staten Island or ahead at Brooklyn but just out into the harbor, dark water and moonlight that’s just gorgeous from up here. Em watches the water with her, and Sofia’s delighted to be able to take her somewhere to survey all the waters she guards from such a new spot. Dale leans over to peek down—they’re seven hundred feet up, and he lets out a soft “whoof” as he looks down.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sof, it’s a helluva run to get up here,” he says, still breathing a little hard. Apparently flying through the Narrows winds is a lot. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sofia just throws her arms over both her partners’ shoulders, cheeks pink from the run but the farthest thing from tired, just exhilarated from the height and the wind and the run.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s just like flying,” she says. </span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Title is from Sofia's 5e Monk class and one of her Warlock Invocations!</p><p>I super hope you enjoy your gift, NiChristi! May 2021 be kind to us all.</p><p>Kudos and comments are even better than a Spaghetti's cannoli, and I reply to every one! </p><p>This fic is rebloggable <a href="https://mordredmanor.tumblr.com/post/639060199311867904/slow-fall-otherworldly-leap-solasola">here</a> on my tumblr <a href="https://mordredmanor.tumblr.com/">@mordredmanor</a>.</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>